The sad truth is that the best technology doesn't win, this has been proven over and over. Truth is the x86 architecture is an ugly beast and getting uglier, but the economies of scale are huge and prior investment in development is what keeps it alive. Surely that is precisely why Apple switched to Intel, the PowerPC is actually superior, so is SPARC and ARM. Beta was better than VHS video. What isn't better than Windoze? Why am I running it right now? Only because there are still some things I can't do on linux yet. OS/2 was light years ahead of Windows and even RAN windows apps. OSX has better prospects (it's based on BSD unix!), and I actually think Steve Jobs made the right decision ditching PowerPC because Intel compatible is a dime a dozen. The iPhone will use ARM ... like almosy anyPhone in the forseeable future. Perhaps this an example where better tech does win. There are more ARM processors running than Pentiums right now, just on smaller devices. The wild thing is that ARM the company does NOT make silicon. They sell IP ... intellectual property. They have hundreds of licensees of ARM IP. You can choose from well over a hundred different ARM processors just from Digikey alone. This is one reason to be interested in ARM and do some work with it, there may come a day when ARM will actually bring the death of the ugly x86. Intel will have to design something new or jump on that same bandwagon. So will AMD. What IBM will do is anybody's guess, same with Sun, executives at all three are surely squirming right now. -- Doug PS. Then there's the iRack LOL http://www.glumbert.com/media/irack
